The other week H had to give a talk to his classmates. They do this regularly at his school, but this time, we got some pictures sent home for the first time. I hadn’t realised that it all took place outside in the big chair, so it was interesting to see that.

Last time H gave a talk about fossils and this time he decided to talk about Pompeii. We went to see Pompeii and Herculaneum over the summer while we were on holiday. They were really interesting, even though us adults had been there before. We actually went on the holiday because he had shown an interest in going to see them, although we didn’t really need a lot of persuading to return to that part of Italy especially as we booked in during a particularly cold spell last winter.

H didn’t just talk about his subject though as many of the other children did, he decided to make it more interesting for his classmates, so he prepared some resources (with a little help). First of all he asked them to try to guess the purpose of certain buildings from the pictures of them. Then he did a quiz where they had to guess whether a ‘god’ was a Roman god or not – he called this bit ‘god or no god’. It seemed to go off very well and I’m proud of how hard he worked to make it interesting for his friends.

This time last week H and I were enjoying a last day of freedom before school went back. H was playing with friends in the park and having a whale of a time. He was doing all the things that often people say children miss out on these days: playing outside, being independent (he was out of sight for most of the day), getting dirty, etc. It was the perfect end to the holidays really.

Last Thursday was a bit of a shock. We’d got out of the habit of getting out of the house for 8.30. We’d got used to gentler starts to the day, even when we’d been busy doing things. Even so Thursday and Friday were fairly easy. There didn’t seem to be much work going on a school and our usual clubs hadn’t restarted. So it was just a day at school and then home to relax, probably with a play in the park on the way home.

Since then things have got a bit more serious. H had homework over the weekend – a poster to make. Then homework set for the week. It didn’t help that it was all R.E. I think as that isn’t his favourite subject by some way. He’s been told he has to read for 20 minutes, 6 days a week – the horror of it! Now H actually reads for much more than this, but he tends to read his reading book for 10 minutes 7 days a week and then read Star Wars encyclopedias or whatever else has captured his interest for hours on end. I did try to say that we can just go on with our usual arrangements (I assume the teacher just wants them to read regularly), but he’s had to write a promise in his reading book and he likes the idea of a day off, but that won’t stop him complaining.

This week clubs have restarted. There was cubs on Monday, which means a late night (finishes 8.45pm), but he really enjoys it. Then I had a grumpy child who wasn’t happy that he’d slept in till 7am on Tuesday and 6.45am this morning to recover. He’d like to get up at 6am each day, but I won’t let him set an alarm for then. Tomorrow we have swimming lessons and Friday is tennis. Tennis is another big bug bear. At the moment I want him to do a sport outside of school as well as swimming. I don’t mind too much what it is. Most sports are available within a few miles of here, even quite unusual ones, that’s the advantage of living in a big city. I’ve suggested archery, fencing, sailing, golf and more instead of the tennis. He actually really enjoys his tennis lesson when he gets there and is quite enthusiastic about it. Talk to him about playing more often as he’s just leaving and he’s quite receptive. He’s improved over the last couple of years since he first started going and it’s good for his hand/eye coordination skills. Now though his good friend has been moved up to the next group. H hasn’t been despite them being the same age. The other boy is better at tennis, plus he’s quite a bit bigger and stronger, so it’s not surprising really. It’s put his nose out of joint a bit though. The chances are he’ll move up soon too and he has another friend in the group he’s in, but it doesn’t stop him moaning.

So is it just my son who is a bit grumpy about going back to school and getting back into the routine, or is that a common thing? School we haven’t missed you at all.

As a child, I used to find the back to school stuff really annoying. Sometimes my school hadn’t even broken up for the summer and the local Woolies would have the back to school displays up already. The last thing you want to think about when you are looking forward to six weeks off is having to go back (ever). The only bit of the whole back to school thing that I liked was the idea of having new stationery. Every year I’d have a new maths set, whether I needed it or not, and a new notepad, pens, etc. These days there are lots of exciting and colourful options for stationery and we’ve enjoyed receiving our back to school stationery pack from 3M Post-it and Scotch.

So for H this year, we are doing the stationery stuff because that’s fun. We aren’t doing so much of the new clothes though. To be honest with a March birthday, H just isn’t growing out of his clothes at this time of year. He’s still got wear in his existing things because most of it was new for the summer term, which is when he does tend to move up a size.

H has been wearing his school shoes for most of the last year. They were Cloggs ones that we had to review. I don’t think we started wearing them in September (I’m not hung up on having new shoes for September, if they aren’t needed), but he’s worn them for the better part of the year. They still have wear left, although they are a bit scuffed at the toes. I’ve polished them up for the start of the new term and I don’t think they look too bad. H is due for new shoes to be honest, as he has said he is starting to feel these (although they aren’t uncomfortable), but we have run out of free days to go get him fitted. There were a few times when we could have gone after or even before a day out, but H wasn’t keen and I didn’t push it. I think we’ll go next week after school one day when the rush is over and when it doesn’t seem like school is pushing into the school holidays where it doesn’t belong. What are your back to school priorities? And what do you just not bother with?

I think most parents are aware that a lot of children regress a little over the summer holidays. Six weeks or even a little more is quite a lot of time to be outside the school environment. I was interested to read a little more about it after the Tutorfair Foundation got in touch with me to offer some tips on halting the summer slide. Some children lose as much as 2 months of reading skills over the summer, but even reading four or five books over the summer can be a real help. H enjoys taking part in the Summer Reading Challenge which is taking place across the country in libraries. H doesn’t really need much encouragement to read and he’ll have finished the Summer Reading Challenge in no time, but it is a good way of motivating reluctant readers.

Writing is our biggest concern for H as this is the thing he likes least, but he needs to keep practising over the summer. We have tried all sorts of things to make sure he does some writing every day. It’s got much easier since he got into creating his own fantasy adventure stories, but you might want to try encouraging keeping a diary (maybe buy a nice notebook to use for it).

Maths can be fitted into every day activities like cooking: children can adapt recipes using fractions or multiplication. H is using his mental arithmetic skills to see what he can buy with his pocket-money: there is a lot of toy catalogue browsing going on at the moment. I think whatever you decide to do, it’s best to keep it fun as it’s the school holidays and children need their downtime.

Tutorfair is a website which aims to make tutoring accessible for all. All to often it’s only the wealthiest students who get to experience the benefits tutoring can provide like increasing confidence or stopping the summer slide. Tutorfair’s website is really easy to use: you search by putting in your postcode (they cover the Greater London area) and subject, and picking the best tutor near you. View everything from qualifications to videos of tutors, so you can get a better idea of what they are like. Online payment makes booking easy, and if you’re not totally satisfied with your tutor after your first lesson, Tutorfair will give you your money back.

The big difference between Tutorfair and other traditional tutoring agencies is “For every student who pays, Tutorfair gives free tutoring to a child can’t” (the ‘fair’ bit). I love this bit as it always seems so unfair that children from poor backgrounds should lose out on the help they need.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post, but I think there are a lot of good tips here.

About me

I’m Erica Price and I run Nine to Three Thirty. I’m a blogger based in Birmingham in the West Midlands. Nine to Three Thirty focuses on topics that interest or concern parents of school age children. Learn more